Far Reach
On first glance, many would have believed Far Reach to be an idyllic, utopian paradise and closer inspection would prove this image to be correct, the rolling, golden beaches, bountiful trees, and tropical temperatures creating an island paradise in the Mauritanjan archipelago. Located in the centre of the Western Islands, the Isle of Far Reach had remained undiscovered for centuries due to being shrouded in the Mists of Mauritanja. When the mists broke, the island was sighted within the sphere of Mauritanian influence and it was not long before the then Queen Adelena dispatched scouts to the island, closely followed by her tax collectors. The tales that scouts brought back were met with disbelief, tales of a peaceful island where the dead waited on the living and were accepted as part of the natural order of things, rather than the abominations that they were often viewed as at the time. While many feared an Unliving horde journeying to Mauritanja to sack and lay waste to the cities, it was the ruler of the island himself that first made the journey from Far Reach to the mainland. Within weeks of the first ship beaching upon the Golden Shores, Alexis Tallarn of Far Reach set foot in Capital City to petition the Queen and speak of the ways of his people and of a culture that had remained unchanged for centuries as Far Reach became a Unicorn Protectorate. Circles: Circle of the Tallarn Races: Humans Culture and the Contract of Unlife It is impossible to understand the people of Far Reach without understanding the regime under which they have lived for many generations. The island itself was once classed as a theocracy with the sole religion being that of the Faith of the Tallarn. The Lord Tallarn, leader of the island was also high priest and Avatar of the Tallarn the Ancestor, ruling over the island as a benevolent dictator for his people. The tenets of the Tallarn teach that life itself is a miraculous thing and as such should be enjoyed and celebrated – not necessarily in a hedonistic manner but rather with the view that one’s well-being and happiness can be achieved through living well and that taking care of one’s family and neighbour should be a natural process to improve the lives of the community. Secondly, it teaches of that the pattern of being is sacrosanct, that it is the pure being and core of the person and that the deeds of the body are marked on the pattern itself. The belief holds that the followers of the Tallarn should strive for a balance, karma of sorts within one’s pattern and that dark acts are a stain that should be atoned before the pattern could be at rest. It is because of this emphatic belief in the well-being of the pattern, the followers of the Tallarn are so passionately opposed to the existence of the Planes of Unlife. The planes of unlife are, to the followers of the Tallarn, a purgatory where the pattern cannot rest, but rather must wait until it is cleansed before moving on to rejoin the cycle of rebirth. This belief has been held since Riddin Tallarn a scholarly man that did much research into the state of the pattern and became the first to bear the title of Lord Tallarn of Far Reach. A powerful incantor in his own right, it was not long before Riddin learnt the arts of necromancy. While Tallarn found the initial idea of necromancy repugnant, he discovered that the use of necromancy could be used to call forth a pattern damned to the Plane of Unlife and with the highest arts of incantation, he could cleanse the Unliving taint and send the pattern on to its rest. He presented his findings to the council that had ruled the island up until this time and they agreed that his studies had revealed a necessary evil in the arts of necromancy with the belief that they could slowly empty and heal the Plane of Unlife, one pattern at a time. Over the years of his life, Tallarn learnt more of how to use his skills for the betterment of his people and served as the culture of the island dictated. It was years before he first channeled from the Plane of Unlife but in doing so, he discovered the curse that necromancy once had on a living pattern. The powers of necromancy ate away at Tallarn’s pattern and he quickly learnt that the taint would spread through his own body, killing him and condemning his own pattern to torment. He quickly began to seek out a successor to pass his knowledge on to. The Island Council appointed Lammil and while Lammil was a quick apprentice, he had barely mastered the arts that Tallarn has learnt before his master struggle became too great and he succumbed to the taint. Caspian took the honorific of Tallarn in remembrance of his former master and laid him to rest. Already, he could feel the corruption in his own pattern and instantly began to seek out his own apprentice for when he himself succumbed. This was the beginning of the line of Tallarn, each learning the greatest arts of incantation and necromancy from their predecessor, completing their training when their master felt that he could no longer ruin on his spirit and then laying his master to rest so that they could find peace in death. With the line established, each Tallarn would choose his successor from the most promising student upon the island with the mantle never being passed onto one of the same blood, ensuring that the line served the best interests of the island rather than risking a hereditary line that could grow to rule for themselves rather than serve their people. It was the Tennan Tallarn, the fifth to bear that title began the contract that would transform the way of life on the island. Tennan believed that service and labour were ways of truly cleansing the pattern in preparation for its journey to resting. When islanders perished, they were laid to rest as soon as possible to ensure that their pattern was not at risk, yet their body remained. Tennan put forward his proposition to the council that a body could have an Unliving spirit summoned from the planes beyond and laid to their rest in order to slowly decrease those that languished in torment. Those that were summoned would be put to work to serve penance for the crimes that they had committed in life before the Lord Tallarn would send them on to their slumber. The island council agreed to this idea, stating that any who wished their bodies to be used in this way could enter into a contract with the Island Council. While this was debated for a score of years, the Contract was eventually written up and within the decade had become a linchpin within Far Reach culture. The process was simple; throughout your life, you would not work, but rather be waited on by the dead. Each act of service that was undertaken on your behalf would add to your contract and upon your own death, you would be laid to rest. Your body would then be used as a vessel, an Unliving pattern summoned into it in order to work off the debt that you had accrued during your life before this Unliving pattern would be sent on for rebirth and your body burnt to remove whatever taints remained. The islanders accepted this gladly and the Contract soon became a way of life on Far Reach. As time went on, the Island Council’s influence lessened as it was no longer needed, while the influence of the Tallarn grew strong. By the time that Rogal Tallarn was appointed as the eighth Lord Tallarn, the Council disbanded itself and instead acted in the role of training potential successors so that they would be ready for the mantle of Tallarn when the time came. During a citizen’s life, they could live the way that they chose. They could be self-sufficient and live a simple life, their bodies being committed to the flames once the final words of the incantation were spoken or they could be waited on throughout their life and live as extravagantly as they pleased, knowing that their bodies would serve to redeem another once they had passed on. The Unliving themselves were largely unintelligent and served in whatever capacity was needed. They were trained as unskilled labour but in rare times, a particularly gifted or talented member of the island would approach the Tallarn and ask to be brought back on their death so that they could serve rather than have another serve their penance. Because of the islanders’ beliefs, this request was rarely granted and only ever for the most gifted of islanders so that their knowledge could be preserved beyond their mortal years. This practice continued from the days of Riddin Tallarn through to the through to Alexis Tallarn, the final Lord Tallarn that came forth to petition the Unicorn Crown with his people way of life. Reaction of the Heartlands and the Fall of Far Reach Since coming under Unicorn Sovereignty, the Far Reach has been repeatedly traded like a bad copper. The island has been sold to the Vipers, Tarantulas, and given to the bank as the settlement of a bad debt in its first decade of discovery, although it was brought back to the Unicorns when the bank’s Grandmaster Ralus took it as his personal property and then swore loyalty to the Unicorn Crown when he resigned from his post in 1109. The initial discovery of the island and their way of life caused great deal of debate, both within Mauritanja and across the Heartlands as a whole. At a time when many believe that necromancy was inherently evil and vastly uncontrollable, the Heartlands were soon abuzz with rumours of the Unicorns’ Unliving army. The Far Reach way of life was not that of the Heartlands and was not understood. The factions of a lighter persuasion called for the island to be purged while the factions of the darker nature were interested to learn more of the rare necromantic skills wielded by the Tallarn. Regularly, Alexis Tallarn would journey to meetings of Unicorns to plead his people’s case and offer the Unicorns unrestricted access to his island. In one such journey, the Lord Tallarn was murdered and rose up as an Unliving. Since the earliest Tallarns, there had always been a phylactery with which the Lord Tallarn could rise again should something befall him before his apprentice’s teaching be completed yet this was the first and only time that it was used. Alexis rose again and continued to try to convince the Unicorns, taking a Unicorn citizen – Farras Deville - as his next apprentice and teaching him the ways of necromancy. As pressure mounted on the Unicorns to act, it was decided that a parliament would be held on the island to decide its fate. The Unicorns gathered on the island to debate the rights and wrongs of necromancy, unlife, and the potential to overturn a culture. A parliament was held, during which it appeared that the Lord Tallarn became mad, driven insane by the unlife that flowed through him. He was eventually killed and his pattern taken, leaving his people leaderless. The parliament itself was called to a premature conclusion when Narduk Nathnul arrived on the island and took control of many of its Unliving denizens to bolster his army on his quest to take his place as an Ancestor. The Unicorns were quickly routed and driven to their ships, leaving the island leaderless and alone. Many of the sentient Unliving quickly went to ground, destroying and laying as many of their unsentient companions to rest. Regardless, Narduk put much of the city to torch and took the remaining Unliving he could find. The Far Reach utopia had ended and the damage had been done. When the Unicorns could finally managed to return to the island in 1105, they found it in a sorry state as the villagers were unaccustomed to fending for themselves after the generations of Unliving servants. During this time, there were many rumours of the Tallarn lineage being a ruse to support an evil line of power, yet this was disproved and was the work of a vampire cult trying to snatch the power for themselves. It emerged that the Cult of Kelad’s Claw had spent several years attempting to manoeuvre their way into controlling the island to steal the secrets of Tallarn and with Alexis Tallarn’s death and rebirth into unlife, they had managed to work their magics and control his mind, setting him up with a puppet wife and trying to tweak his actions to serve their purpose, explaining his strange actions and changes of attitude at the Unicorn parliament. Between 1105 and 1109, the Cult worked under the Master Vampire Charles Telwar to enslave and ruin the populace in hope of summoning Kelad, an ancient Shadow Elf Magi. The Unicorns lost contact with the island for large portions of this time and much was lost. They were stopped when the Unicorns brought a host of nations to the island in 1109 to destroy the Kelad-creature. The Cult believed to be destroyed by the Entropy following the Cataclysm, although Telwar’s body was never found. To this day, vampires are despised by the people of Far Reach as the ultimate corruption in accordance with Tallarn’s teaching as not only are their patterns broken but they feed from the power of the living to sustain their dead form. While the line of the Tallarn is now broken, Hopkirk – a barrow-wight and the former manservant of Alexis Tallarn leads the Faith of the people until a new Tallarn is picked from the populace. The Islands of Far Reach The Island of Far Reach itself was largely untouched by the ravages of the Cataclysm and its landscape has remained unchanged. The ‘isle’ of Far Reach consists of three smaller islands, connected by a series of ferries and bridges. The Golden Shores is the most southern of the islands and where the first Unicorn scouts landed on discovering the islands. The golden beaches from which the isle takes its name stretch out in rolling dunes to the south while the north of the island is covered with plentiful fruit trees. Where the beech meets the trees, the Golden Sands transport circle rests. The circle itself is rarely used as it is farthest away from the island’s two towns. Much like its neighbouring island, the Spiritshell Cape boasts the beautiful white sands that cover the island’s northern shores while the forest known as the Hollows stretches across the southern boundaries. In the centre of the Hollows, two cairns have been erected. They once served as barrows to barrow-wights that once served the Tallarn line but when the barrow-wight’s service was up, they were dismissed, laid to rest and burnt according to island custom. They Twin Barrows have been unoccupied and undisturbed ever since. As already mentioned, a series of ferries and bridges connect the three islands. The Spiritshell Bridge connects the Cape to the mainland, the Golden Bridge connects the mainland to the Shores and the Sunlit Bridge connects two smaller islands together. While most crossings are done via the bridges, a series of ferries have been established to provide other transport for between the islands through the calm waters. The island of Far Reach itself boasts the same beauty and splendour with its beautiful white sands. The Wightwood stretches from the northeast of the isle to the northwest like a spine across the northern shore. To the east of the island upon the crest of a large hill rests the Lord’s Mansion. From its vantage point, it dominates the island and while originally the meeting hall of the Island Council, the building was torn down by the Cult of Kelad during their occupation of the island until 1109. It has gradually been rebuilt by the islanders and serves once again as a seat of rulership and the residence of the governor of the island. At the foot of the hill and nestled in a small copse of mango trees lies the Circle of the Tallarn ritual circle, a minor circle that powers the Far Reach and the Golden Sands transport circles. The ritual circle is balanced towards light incantation. At the north of the circle, a series of large, black rocks form an archway that appears to represent the Void Gate with a large marble slab lying across it to block the gateway from sight. The circle itself is surrounded by five standing stones. These stones are inscribed with glyphs and runes from the world of Amoth; they were originally used by the daemon-fae Mephias to destroy Amoth. They were placed in the circle when Farras Deville took them as a prize following Mephias’ defeat. During the Kelad Cultist occupation, these necromantic pillars were taken to the corners of the island and the space between them became a weakened threshold between Erdreja and the Plane of Unlife. In the centre of the circle, there is a large indentation when the Altar of the Tallarn used to rest. The Altar was a source of necromantic power that was finely attuned to the circle but was stolen by Narduk Nathnul when he took the island. It is believed that the altar itself now rests in Narduk’s temple. Local legends have begun to believe that the line of the Tallarn will begin when the altar is returned. A quarter of a mile’s travel from the circle lies the ill-named City of the Tallarn, more of a small town than a city although it is the central hub of the island’s population while to the west of the island lies Far Reach Harbour, recently revived when the Mists were breached. When the Mists lifted, the harbour was revived and a number of fishing shanties began to emerge. Before long, a second community developed. While there are a handful of scattered residences across the islands in more remote locations, the vast majority of the population are split between the two towns of Far Reach Harbour and the City of the Tallarn. The City of the Tallarn The City of the Tallarn is a small market town that boasts little trade as the islanders live off the land, though is counted as a place rich in culture and the arts. Art from Far Reach is becoming an increasingly popular export and now graces the most decorated halls in the societies of Gavelle and Adelena. The citizens of the island are almost exclusively human barring a few settlers and while the line of the Tallarn is broken, the sole Faith practiced is that of the Tallarn. The community is tight-knit but welcoming and are intensely proud of their history and heritage. With the loss of the line of the Tallarn, the citizens of Far Reach have been forced to adapt and learn skills that they have not needed for generations but their Faith is as much a way of their life as it is a part of their religion. To the people of Far Reach, they still lay their dead to rest and await a time when their Ancestor once again blesses another to walk as his Avatar on their islands. The buildings of Far Reach tend towards tall, sandy-coloured affairs, repeat with columns and statues while its open-air markets are colourful and freshly stocked with fresh fish and fruit from the island and its waters. The buildings in the City are built in a circle, facing in towards a central plaza that is counted as the heart of the City. While an MPD watch house was established on the island in 1110, the officers are often little more than spectators as there is so little crime. The beliefs of the Tallarn teach service and the islanders have quickly adapted from The central plaza itself - known as the Council Plaza - is a spot of revelry and gaiety. Under the Tallarn, regular celebrations would be held and would often see the whole population in attendance. Since the end of the Tallarn, the festivals are now less frequent as they are no longer prepared by Unliving servants, yet when they are held, the entire island arrives for the celebrations. During the reconstruction of the City after the Keladite occupation, one building rose to prominence during the reconstruction. Built in 1110 by the Stagecoach Breweries, The Whistling Duck stands three stories tall and overlooks the Council Plaza below. Before the coming of the Unicorns, alcohol was almost unheard of across the islands and has since become a major import. Meeting the demand, the Whistler was constructed and has now become a central hub of the community, surpassing even the Lord’s Manor as a place of influence. Sovereignty and Government of Far Reach Personal property of ex-Grandmaster Ralus of the bank, Far Reach became Mauritanian once more when he swore an oath to the country in 1109. In 1111 he named Persephone Electra Hornby-Whittington as his seneschal of both Far Reach, and her sister island in Gryphon lands. Whilst in theory Ralus is Governor of Far Reach, with his many lands and duties, he often has little time to run the land, and Persephone oversees day to day life in Far Reach. Category:Island Category:Western Isles